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Usability Testing
'''Usability Testing''' Focuses on people and their tasks, and seeks empirical evidence about how to improve the usability of an interface. '''Prerequisites: User Personas, User Stories, User Flows, Build Prototype''' '''Step 1 - Define Scenarios''' Assuming that you already learned about the technology and the people that use it, you can begin to outline major scenarios that can be used for testing. Scenarios can be high-level or granular. They can be use cases or edge cases. Examples include: "Do [x] with the product" or "Manage [x] in the product" or "Use the product while doing [x] and [y] is also happening" '''Example Scenario:''' Joe is going to the market to purchase a new thing. How would Joe find the best deal on a thing by using [Product X]? '''Step 2 - Define Protocol - Questions, Locations and Equipment''' Using your scenarios you can now create a usability testing protocol. What this protocol will allow you to do is break your Scenarios from Step 1 into a set of touchpoints. Each touchpoint represents a piece of the user journey while interacting with a product. At the end of the protocol, you will want to include general questions to wrap up the experience. Each Scenario should be split in the protocol, so that the format looks something like this: '''Location: '''The Lab '''Equipment: '''A cozy chair and a smartphone (with prototype), video-camera, laptop, NDA, stopwatch '''Scenario 1: '''Imagine that you are looking to buy a thing and have just downloaded [Product X] to help you find deals for the best thing. The app is designed so that it shows you locations of where things can be purchased for the lowest price. * TP1: Where would you go to find the thing you are looking for? * TP2: What would you do on this screen? * TP3: Where would you find information about this? * TP4: How would you create an account? * TP5: Say you wanted to compare things, how would you do that? '''Scenario 2: '''Imagine that you are looking to create a list of things that you would like to buy. You want the application to remind you when a thing on your list is available for sale. * TP6: How would you add a thing to a list? * TP7: How would you remove a thing from your list? * TP8: How would you set an alert for things on your list? * TP9: How would you remove an alert for things on your list? * TP10: Where would you go to learn more about things? '''Closing: '''I'm now going to ask you some general questions about [Product X] * How was this experience for you? * Were there any areas where you felt frustrated or confused? * Have you used an application like this before? * What would you expect from this product in the future? '''Step 3 - Define Testing Strategy - Criteria and Recruitment''' Assuming you have your prototype ready, you will now want to create your criteria for participants in usability testing. You will want to align your participants with user data so that they are at least someone who might access your product. On way is to define criteria for your participants that align with your personas. '''Participant Criteria:''' * Between 18-60 y/o * Uses at least 5 smartphone apps * Has downloaded an app in the past month * Shops online The next thing you will want to do is '''recruit''' participants, scheduling dates and times for a usability test. In some cases, provide compensation such as a $20 Amazon Gift Card. Use your protocol to define the duration of the usability test and recruit/compensate as necessary. '''Participant A: '''Date/Time/Location '''Participant B: '''Date/Time/Location '''Participant C: '''Date/Time/Location '''Step 4 - Usability Test''' When your participants arrive for testing, it will be important to '''record''' the session using the equipment mentioned in Step 2. Print out your protocol to keep notes at different touch-points. Make sure you have the participant's consent e.g. with an N.D.A. '''Starting the test:''' Brief the participants on the usability test. Provide enough knowledge about the domain or scenario that they feel comfortable with the subject of the test. Don't give away important details that might skew the results of the usability test. '''During the test: '''Run the participants through each scenario.''' '''Use a stopwatch to time the intervals between touchpoints, or revisit the recording label to score the participants. This data will be necessary for creating the experience map. Keep notes on participant questions, nuances, body language, frustrations, happiness, and areas that might be considered "pain points". '''After the test: '''Debrief the participants and ask them any additional questions you might have. Provide them with compensation. Keep all data and recordings safe and store them where necessary. '''Next Steps - Experience Map''' =